subject: Internet Scams Spanish Prisoner [print this page] This particular scam has its origins in the 1500s, where thieves took advantage of many victims and left them without any money. Due to how it started, it's known as the Spanish Prisoner. Apparently, the powerful nature of Spain left it with a lot of enemies, leaving suspicions high. Scammers would tell victims that a member of Spanish royalty had been taken prisoner, and bribes would be required to release them. By offering their money to release the reward, not only would they be promised large rewards, but a princess would be offered as well.
As with any con it required some research in order to only contact "soft" yet financially solid targets, as well as a demeanor that's hard to duplicate. This type of conman can sell anything to anyone and get away with not only the money, but with the mark not initially realizing they've been duped.
This type of confidence game continues today, but can take various forms. As always it relies on confidentiality, mystery, and a feeling that a great deal is at stake. They play on the fact that, at heart, people want to save the world and come out financially well-off in the process. As the con continues, more and more money is harvested. Eventually the mark has invested so much they can't pull out without risking losing it all, which they do in the end anyway.
The 419 fraud, or the advance fee fraud, is but one form of this extremely popular scam. The Internet has made scamming a very easy business. You can get access to people's email addresses easily enough, and even find their last name with the right sources. With this information, you can pretend to be a relative with the same last name as them.
When you contact them over the Internet, you tend to follow up with a call that explains the detailed situation. Since you'll be using the phone, consult a telephone look-up service like telephone-reverse-searching.com/605/757/ which can help you to figure out whether or not their claims are legitimate. The Spanish Prisoner con is the basis for the majority of today's scams, with plenty of alterations.
From the advanced fee fraud, where administrative costs are requested from the mark in order to release funds or valuable items, many variations have appeared. The romance, overpayment, employment, and reshipping scams and, in today's Internet world, lottery email scams and work from home scams also have come on the scene to cause much difficulty for those who are too trusting.
There are many other ways to protect one self from scammers besides using telephone look-up services like the one previously mentioned. One is to delete any emails which come from unknown parties. It's important to remember that once opened, scammers can gain access to an entire address book with the touch of a button. With enough persistence eventually they will hit a soft mark and it all starts with one person opening an unknown email.
If such an e-mail is accidentally opened, poor spelling and grammar, or an offer of free gifts or exorbitant sums of cash that can be obtained by sending a small sum of money, or opening an empty checking account, are clues that it is a scam attempt. There is no global Internet law enforcement, but several individual countries, with the aid of those who have been scammed, are attempting to locate and terminate these fraudulent groups. If we all work in concert, this plague can be wiped out.
